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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
I must admit, I did not read this one all the way through. It was so freakishly long and took such frustrating diversions and little side-story twists and turns that I was utterly disoriented and I may or may not have thrown it at a wall in my reader's rage! ;) I did, however, read enough to make me wildly curious about the upcoming film adaptation... I cannot think of one reason why I would recommend this book to a friend but maybe the movie will throw new light on some scenes and the purpose of such a lengthy book! If you can't spell out a fictional story-line in 400 words or less (preferably less!) then maybe it doesn't need to be said.
the last book my pop pop gave me <3 so it has to be a fave
Too long and I was so relieved when it was over. Some good magical realism but I lost the main thread of the story. 2.5*
Ugh - no - I just am not up for the purple prose and lyrical rhapsodies of this author. I am not wasting my time - sorry Mr. Helprin, I've enjoyed other books of yours - but life is too short to slog through this one.
When I finished this book three weeks ago, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. After all, it strung me along for 749 pages, only to leave me with the idea that I should decide within my own heart how it ends. Poetic? Maybe a little, considering this book is filled with fantastical paragraphs that create very detailed, magical scenes in your mind, most often of the simplest things. Frustrating? Absolutely. The story could have been told in 350-400 pages, but all of this poetic writing to create magical scenes rarely did anything to contribute to the story. Most of the time, it felt like these paragraphs were written separately, just for their poetic value alone, and dropped into scenes in the book. I found it distracting, yet I struggled through it because I figured that a book called Winter's Tale with beautiful blue, black, and white cover art, and such beautiful writing must have a great story within and an amazing ending. If only that were true, I would not have minded those 749 pages, but there was no amazing ending. It left me a little annoyed and unsure about what I thought of the story that was buried within.
Without the ending the reader longs for, you're left to ask a lot of questions. Was the book about a giant, magical white horse? Was the story Peter Lake, his travel through time, and his long lost love? Maybe both of those were just distractions and it was about New York City over time in a subtle way. What purpose did Peter Lake traveling through time serve for the story? The author left me to come to my own conclusions but I still don't know how I feel about it and the poeticism of having me decide comes across as lazy after luring me through 749 pages of writing that often made no sense and did not fit in with the storyline, which actually seemed of lesser importance to the author than the writing itself.
After three weeks, I'm still not sure how I feel about the book. The writing is something I'm unlikely to ever forget, but the beautiful writing comes with what I perceive to be lack of storytelling capability. I may have wasted a lot of hours and days reading a story that seemed to have little planning and thought, but what I did learn is that it's possible for a writer to be able to craft beautiful paragraphs and descriptions that either leave you mesmerized and/or confused, without being able to put them all together to tell a cohesive story that is enjoyable to the reader.
This book gets three stars for its writing and story idea. Sadly, the story idea was left jumbled and incomplete. It leaves me disappointed and also frustrated that it lured me in and wasted my time.
Without the ending the reader longs for, you're left to ask a lot of questions. Was the book about a giant, magical white horse? Was the story Peter Lake, his travel through time, and his long lost love? Maybe both of those were just distractions and it was about New York City over time in a subtle way. What purpose did Peter Lake traveling through time serve for the story? The author left me to come to my own conclusions but I still don't know how I feel about it and the poeticism of having me decide comes across as lazy after luring me through 749 pages of writing that often made no sense and did not fit in with the storyline, which actually seemed of lesser importance to the author than the writing itself.
After three weeks, I'm still not sure how I feel about the book. The writing is something I'm unlikely to ever forget, but the beautiful writing comes with what I perceive to be lack of storytelling capability. I may have wasted a lot of hours and days reading a story that seemed to have little planning and thought, but what I did learn is that it's possible for a writer to be able to craft beautiful paragraphs and descriptions that either leave you mesmerized and/or confused, without being able to put them all together to tell a cohesive story that is enjoyable to the reader.
This book gets three stars for its writing and story idea. Sadly, the story idea was left jumbled and incomplete. It leaves me disappointed and also frustrated that it lured me in and wasted my time.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If I can skip 10 pages and have not missed a thing but a description, I'm done. 200 pages in, I give up.
I felt like this book could have been half as long. It kept dragging on and on and on... it was exhausting.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No